THE Delhi High Court today ruled that making life “miserable” enough for someone to take his own life does not fall under the ambit of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.
To “prompt or persuade” someone to commit suicide is a criminal offence punishable with 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Hearing the bail plea of a woman whose husband committed suicide rather than “tolerate” her further, Justice S N Dhingra detailed the ingredients of the offence under Section 306 IPC: “It is necessary there should be an overt act done by the accused to abet the suicide. That is, the accused should persuade or prompt a person to commit suicide.”
“Fine-tuning” the definition of the offence ‘abetment of suicide’, Justice Dhingra said, “If a person takes his own life unable to tolerate the circumstances around him or is miserable due to the actions of others, his death is not a cause of an overt act/abetment by his near and dear ones or his superiors at the workplace.”
Explaining his thought, the Judge said: “If a client loses his case due to negligence of his lawyer and commits suicide, will the lawyer be held guilty of abetment?”
The case which came up before the High Court bench was that of Gandhi Nagar resident, Meenu, and her mother, Omwati, both seeking bail after they were charged with abetting the suicide of the former’s husband of two years.
Meenu’s husband injected himself with poison in 2005 shortly after she separated from him. He left a suicide note saying he was unable to “tolerate” his wife and mother-in-law, both of whom had been “threatening to implicate him in a dowry case”. He, however, “forgave” his wife.
Both were given bail on a personal bond of Rs 20,000.